[moralfibre]

There are about 975 RTO's across India. There was a need to centralize the databases of all these RTO's in an attempt to make data available real time to all offices. The ministry of Road Transport and highways entrusted this job to the National Informatics centre as it does for other government portals. Thus was born Vahan and Sarathi, two portals that hold current data for all RTO's and growing.

Vahan:

Vahan serves all activities related to vehicle registration, tax, permits etc. Following is a list of these services to be delivered through vahan:

• Vehicle Registration
  New Vehicle Registration
  Renewal of Registration
  Transfer of Ownership
  Change of Address etc.
• Permit
  Issue of National & Interstate Permit
  Renewal of Permit
• Taxes
  State-wise tax calculation & Payment
• Fitness
  Issue of Fitness Certificate
  Renewal of Fitness Certificate
• Enforcement
  Issue of Challan
  Settlement of Penalty Amount

Vahan offers a search feature where you could access your vehicle registration information by putting in your registration number and last 5 digits of your chassis number. Try it here.

Tried and tested for my 2011 Swift and it got me all the information.

Website for Vahan: https://vahan.nic.in/nrservices/faces/welcome.jsp

Sarathi

Services to be offered through Sarathi include:

• Driving license
• Conductor's license
• Driving school license
• Fees

Similar to Vahan, Sarathi offers a license search feature as well. Try it here.

Tried to search for my license issued in 2003 and it doesn't show up.

Website for Sarathi: https://sarathi.nic.in:8443/nrportal...i/HomePage.jsp

The website interfaces for both Vahan and Sarathi appear to be amateurish. I sincerely wish they complete the portals and throw them open to public for online appointments, et al. The website for Sarathi is still running on the default tomcat port and is one of the worst hosting practice.

The websites ssl certificates have expired and it is NOT recommended to try any secure transactions via these websites.

More details on the initiative can be found here.

[jalsa777]

This is great. I always wished that government offices offer information and collect information online.

I agree that the websites look amateurish, but i will give that a pass for now. Its important they offer all planned functionality and then the looks can be taken care of.

I tried Sarathi with my 2007 issued electronic driving license and it did not have it in its database

[ra'ul M]

The try it here link does not seem to be working, at least on Chrome.
Also, it says that the website is not a trusted source of information
My Himachal Pradesh issued licence is also not showing in the search. Maybe they are still updating the database!

[LastActionHero]

Tried for my car which I sold recently and it showed all the details including the details of transfer of ownership! Excellent initiative by the govt.

[adg_andy]

Doesn't show my 2 month old car in search :(

[SAS]

Originally Posted by adg_andy

Doesn't show my 2 month old car in search :(

Welcome to the Indian bureaucracy. It should eventually show up, give it a couple months or so.

I'll check my 7 year old car shortly and post results. Thanks @moralfibre for the good thread

[el lobo 6061]

Opening the website shows SSl Certificate error. Eventually on continuing the website Vahan does open up.
It showed details of both my Kinetic Honda Jan'96 and Vento TDi Apr'11. Very useful website but the website hasn't been coded properly. There are some loopholes.
NiC needs to provide proper security to the database otherwise if it falls in wrong hands read thief's, it could easily disclose owners address and other confidential data.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by ra'ul M

The try it here link does not seem to be working, at least on Chrome.
Also, it says that the website is not a trusted source of information
My Himachal Pradesh issued licence is also not showing in the search. Maybe they are still updating the database!

I guess their licensing database is not yet updated. The try it link works, just accept the security error and add an exception.

Originally Posted by LastActionHero

Tried for my car which I sold recently and it showed all the details including the details of transfer of ownership! Excellent initiative by the govt.

Originally Posted by SAS

I'll check my 7 year old car shortly and post results. Thanks @moralfibre for the good thread

I did manage to get details of my Swift that I bought a few months ago as well.

Originally Posted by adg_andy

Doesn't show my 2 month old car in search :(

adg_andy, try el lobo's suggestion as below. Do ensure you put in the last 5 characters of your chassis number as well.

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Opening the website shows SSl Certificate error. Eventually on continuing the website Vahan does open up.
It showed details of both my Kinetic Honda Jan'96 and Vento TDi Apr'11. Very useful website but the website hasn't been coded properly. There are some loopholes.
NiC needs to provide proper security to the database otherwise if it falls in wrong hands read thief's, it could easily disclose owners address and other confidential data.

[Mubeen]

Originally Posted by ra'ul M

The try it here link does not seem to be working, at least on Chrome.
Also, it says that the website is not a trusted source of information
My Himachal Pradesh issued licence is also not showing in the search. Maybe they are still updating the database!

Don't select any particular state from the drop down box for the license details. Let the option stay in the "select state" view.

I used the Tamilnadu state option but I got a "no data exists" message. De-selected the state & got all details!

[sajo]

My 2002 Driving License doesnt show up here. But the details of my car sure do. Impressive. Hope it helps police track down offenders more quickly.

EDIT : Moralfibre , I am tempted to post this link on Pune Traffic Police's Facebook page, every time they cite reasons like "Out of Pune Registration, cant do anything" when it comes to prosecuting non MH12/MH14 vehicles.

[supratim07]

Thanks for this information ...it showed me all details of my cars

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by Mubeen

Don't select any particular state from the drop down box for the license details. Let the option stay in the "select state" view.
I used the Tamilnadu state option but I got a "no data exists" message. De-selected the state & got all details!

but it still doesn't show up MH driving licenses. Thanks for the tip for fellow TN members.

Originally Posted by sajo

My 2002 Driving License doesnt show up here. But the details of my car sure do. Impressive. Hope it helps police track down offenders more quickly.

EDIT : Moralfibre , I am tempted to post this link on Pune Traffic Police's Facebook page, every time they cite reasons like "Out of Pune Registration, cant do anything" when it comes to prosecuting non MH12/MH14 vehicles.

The problem I see sajo is that they won't have the last 5 characters of the chassis number. Not that they wouldn't be able to get past that requirement if they have access to the database. But, you know how our babus are.

[sajo]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

The problem I see sajo is that they won't have the last 5 characters of the chassis number. Not that they wouldn't be able to get past that requirement if they have access to the database. But, you know how our babus are.

There is an option of logging in too, so I guess there will be a option of bypassing chassis number trick.

I am worried about two wheelers though. Bikes have their chassis number etched on the frame, and if i was a thief, I could get all info from there.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by sajo

There is an option of logging in too, so I guess there will be a option of bypassing chassis number trick.

I am worried about two wheelers though. Bikes have theirs etched on the frame, and if i was a thief, I could get all info from there.

Yes, there should be a login for the traffic cells across the country to nail offenders. A lot can be done when you have an automated system, the question is, will they?

It is an unsecured database from what I see. You have as much access to two wheeler information as me.

EDIT: On the bright side, imagine you visit a used car dealer and you quietly note down the last 5 characters of the chassis number of the car along with the registration number. You could get in touch with the owner and get a fair idea on the vehicle mileage, condition and repair history, etc. I'm sure you could coax in to ask the selling price of the car to know how much the dealer is looting you.

[sajo]

Edited my Earlier post.

Originally Posted by moralfibre

It is an unsecured database from what I see. You have as much access to two wheeler information as me.

No no, I mean, even if I am a regular joe thief, I can saunter across a public parking lot, check out the chassis number of a few bikes and note their registration numbers, go home, get their home info and proceed to misuse it.